Diego lives in our collective imagination as a hero, who accomplished the feat of making us happy and winning [...]. But without a ball, Maradona is just a man who is not able to live up to his perfect memory. Neither in his eyes nor in those of others. Jorge Valdano.
Everything started with a boy saying in front of a camera that he dreams of playing in the Argentinian soccer team one day, while he stands in a makeshift soccer field. However, everyone knows that the closer you get to the sun, the faster and especially
the more disastrous the fall. His main example of consistency was that of being authentic in his contradictions. He has never stopped being Maradona, even when he could not bear to be him anymore. A coin of the greatest value with two sides: on one of them, a portrait of an invincible god, while on the other, the image of human weakness and degradation. We are talking of a man who moves us, comfort us, and motivate us. A drug addict always struggling. The one who sings tango, and dances cumbia. The one who asks the Pope to sell Vatican gold, and give it to the poor. The best summary of his life, of his lifestyle, of what he was able to create: those four minutes between his two scores against England in 1986.
The cheat and the magician. The one who is able to cheat everyone by stretching his arm, and saying after the game that he scored «a bit with Maradona’s head and a bit with
God’s hand». He is the one sung in songs, the one they made shocking documentaries about. The one who is always coming back to his origins, and is more interested in those who own the least. The one who was hospitalized in a neuropsychiatric clinic. The one who was able to give up cocaine. He is also the man who slowly faded. His body deteriorated, and started showing the signs of his long-lasting years of overflowing, of excesses, of
kicks, of travels, of addictions, of fluctuating weight, in which he pushed himself to the very limits. His soul slowly faded, too. He did not want to be Maradona anymore, but he could not be an average man, either. Nothing motivated him anymore. Neither antidepressants nor sleeping pills worked. Fewer and fewer things started his engine: neither money nor fame, neither his job nor his family, neither women nor soccer. He got to the point where
he lost the game. And he is grieved by Argentina, and ultimately by the entire world. Maradona’s life is a faithful portrait of his beloved country.
What is Argentina? Argentina is cheerfulness, spontaneity, family; it is asado, mate, empanadas, alfajores, and dulce de leche; it is landscapes, shores, mountains, glaciers, and plains; it is the home of past century’s emigrants; it is soccer, tango, and cumbia; it is a
fertile and prosperous land. But Argentina is also uncertainty, precariousness, poverty, decadence; it is nine defaults, inflation, corruption, and ignorance. Argentina, like Maradona, is pure talent, is aware of its potential, but after obtaining power, became intoxicated with it, and its soul became corrupted by several vices, which are quite fast leading her to ruin. Adam Smith wrote that “no society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the greater part of the members are poor and miserable”. This is the scenario: an unhappy country, made of unhappy but wonderful people who cannot fulfill their potential, of severe poverty and criminality, hunger, drug addiction, alcoholism, and despair. In our collective imagination, Argentina is a country that could and, actually, should be able to do its best in everything,
and in every three economic sectors because has the advantage of a good territorial extension, and a fertile soil. Moreover, its land is made of large globalized progressive and industrialized cities, but also of fields, wonderful tourist areas for whatever activity (sea, mountains, flora, fauna, and culture).
However, we all know that when citizens are passive, democracy falls ill because the most
important political office is that of the private citizen. In the country, you can easily feel a strong sense of criticism against the government, but you should always keep in mind that those in power are not a separate class of human beings: they are a product of the society itself, having being students, workers, and community members who simply reached their goal. Therefore, before pointing an accusing finger at someone, we should think about our position and condition, take on our own responsibilities, fulfill our duties as citizens, educate
ourselves, work, respect others, and especially make an honest living. Argentina could have be the young, cocky, confident, aware-of-his-grandiosity Maradona during the World Championship, but decided to be soccer-less Maradona: a nation that cannot live up to other people’s expectations, not because it is not able to, but because it did not have the strength to oppose human degradation. In an accurate analysis of the country, a Washington Post article concluded that Argentinians prefer poverty. Society fights wealth. This led the country to live several conflicts. We reached a high degree of mass mental decline, and if such an ideal, which seeped into our mentality, is not removed from Argentinian soul, our country will not find any solution to its ruin. Among all the many things he did in his life, Maradona interviewed himself. On the occasion, a Diego in a suit asked a Diego in t-shirt what he had
regretted. He answered: “I am sorry that I hurt my mother, my father, my siblings, and those who love me. I am sorry that I could not do my best in soccer because due to cocaine I gave advantages to others”. And this should be Argentina’s regret: having hurt those who love the country, and believe in it, and not done its best, because by doing so, it simply gave benefits to others, it hid itself. Argentina itself is the author of its ruin. However, we should never doubt that a small group of diligent and politically active citizens could change the world, as
Margaret Mead wrote. Therefore, as long as there are citizens who put effort in making Argentina great again, we have a ray of hope. I know that I belong to that region where emotion always defeats reason, because Argentina has crazy swallows in its heart, in which hope always creates some color, and people never get tired of dreaming and sharing love’. Eladia Blazquez, songwriter.
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